T-Mobile U.S.A. announces John Legere as new CEO

T-Mobile U.S.A. has just announced a new CEO by the name of John Legere who starts the job on September 22. Jim Alling, T-Mobile's chief operating officer, had been interim CEO since June when long-time CEO Philip Humm stepped down. Before T-Mobile, Legere had occupied quite a few senior positions at AT&T and Dell.

Legere's immediately preceding position was as CEO of a wireline communications infrastructure company called Global Crossing, a company which suffered shady executive spending and a messy bankruptcy. T-Mobile is still on a rocky financial road, so at least Legere will be in familiar territory.

Anyone remember Global Crossing from the internet boom years? How confident are you in Legere's ability to pull T-Mobile out of last place in the U.S. wireless service provider game?

John Legere Named as Chief Executive Officer of T-Mobile USA

Bellevue, Wash. — 2012-09-19 10:03:30

Deutsche Telekom (OTCQX: DTEGY), one of Europe's leading telecommunications and information technology service companies and the parent company of T-Mobile USA, today announced that John Legere, a 32-year veteran of the U.S. and global telecommunications and technology industries, has been named Chief Executive Officer of its T-Mobile business unit, effective September 22. He succeeds Jim Alling, who has served as interim CEO since June and will return to his position as T-Mobile’s Chief Operating Officer.

Mr. Legere, 54, is the former CEO of Global Crossing, where he successfully transformed the company to become a leading provider of IP services worldwide. Under his direction, the company completed the world's first integrated global IP-based network, achieved near-perfect network operations and significantly improved customer satisfaction.

“John is a talented and proven executive who brings a successful track record of leading and operating consumer- and business-focused telecommunications and technology companies,” said René Obermann, CEO of Deutsche Telekom. “As T-Mobile moves forward with its strategic initiatives to improve its market position, including expanding its network coverage and initiating LTE service, John has obviously the right skillset to lead the business into the future. John’s experience in the telecommunication and technology industries at Global Crossing and Dell will enhance T-Mobile’s ability to deliver superior mobile experiences for our customers as the Company continues to strengthen its business. I am delighted to welcome John to T-Mobile and look forward to working with him to make T-Mobile a stronger competitor.”

“I am thrilled to join T-Mobile and lead the Company at such a pivotal time,” said Mr. Legere. “T-Mobile is taking a number of significant steps to revitalize the business and I look forward to leading our team and partners to accelerate these efforts to become a force in our industry.”

Prior to joining Global Crossing, Mr. Legere was CEO of Asia Global Crossing, a Microsoft, Softbank and Global Crossing joint venture. Before that, Mr. Legere served as Senior Vice President of Dell Computer Corporation, where he was President of the Company’s operations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, as well as in the Asia-Pacific region. From 1983 to 1998, Mr. Legere worked at AT&T, where he served in a number of senior positions, including President of AT&T Asia, President of AT&T Solutions Outsourcing and head of global corporate strategy and business development. He began his career at New England Telephone in 1980.

A Massachusetts native, Mr. Legere received a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Massachusetts. He earned a master's degree in science as an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Additionally, he received his Master of Business Administration degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) and completed Harvard Business School’s Management Development Program in 1989.

Mr. Legere is a competitive runner and marathoner and uses his running as a means to support various charitable causes. He has raised more than $1.2 million in eight recent Boston Marathon runs for cancer research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute where he is also a Board Trustee. Mr. Legere is on the Board of the New York Road Runners and NYC Marathon, Achilles International and Shoe4Africa.

“On behalf of Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile, I want to thank Jim for his effective leadership during his term as interim CEO. Jim is an instrumental member of our team and will continue to play a key role in guiding our strategic direction. We are pleased that T-Mobile will continue to benefit from his leadership and experience as he resumes his position as COO,” continued Mr. Obermann.

Wow, yea, the first thing I look at when considering what cell carrier to go with is how attractive the CEO is. What can I say, I'm superficial like that, and really, everyone knows that the attractiveness of the CEO directly translates into better network signal strength and calling plan value.

"Michael Nighan couldn't believe his eyes. As Global Crossing's North America director of regulatory affairs, one of Nighan's tasks was to review all of the startup telco's marketing and sales material. But what confused him in late 1999 was a map of Global Crossing's network that showed a fiber-optic loop around the continent of Africa. "What's this?" asked Nighan. He was told it was Africa One, an undersea broadband cable that Global Crossing planned to build for a group of telecom carriers. "But I said it didn't belong on a map of our network because one, it doesn't exist, and two, even if it did exist, it wouldn't belong to us," says Nighan, who left Global Crossing last November. The response Nighan got was, "Gary wants it there." So it stayed on the map." - Fortune Magazine - June 24, 2002

as a new tmobile customer, i am really not sure i like this. I hope he goes in the right direction. New CEO could come in and shake everything up... in a bad way. not to mention that he just looks kinda sleezy.

I like him, very smart guy who knows what has to be done for T-Mobile to succeed. T-Mobile has unlimited data without throttling for $30.00 a month. If you are in their coverage area (it's growing)
then you should try them, very very fast HSPA+ getting over 15mb down and 4-5 mb up during the day, after 4:00pm I get over 20+ mb down and 5 -7 up. These are very fast and consistent speeds. The battery life on HSPA+ is unbelievable compared to LTE. I also have Verizon as a 2nd line and it is also very fast but if I had to give up one of my lines I would keep T-Mobile. Next year they will have LTE.

I've been trying to decide if I'm going to stay with T-mobile or jump to Sprint when the two years run out on my parent's lines in November. This adds another mark to the jump to Sprint column.

The main mark in the stay with T-Mo column is LTE. I'm still convinced it's a dead-end tech for phones, because of the way it goes through batteries. T-Mo is still on ASP+, which is fast enough for me.